O Beloved offers a unique insight into a soldier’s experience of war through this collection of letters home to his wife, lavishly illustrated with over a hundred photographs and maps. Dr. David Hirst was a front-line combat surgeon who saw action in some of the fiercest battles of World War II, at Kasserine Pass and Hill 609 in North Africa and Cassino and Anzio in Italy. Despite that, these annotated letters attempt to mask the brutality and horror with everyday life in the field to keep from alarming those at home. Eventually, however, as the war grinds on, the letters darken. Dr. Hirst’s letters and photographs have been compiled and annotated by his wife Charlotte and son Stephen and now issued for the first time to the public.